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After Claude -
Iris Owens
1973 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
Rare in first edition, even more so in dust jacket, and here you have a fine and signed first edition.
Cult classic and the first of only two books published under the author’s own name. The rest of her career was spent writing pornography as ‘Harriet Daimler’ for the Olympia Press in Paris.
‘After Claude’ features Harriet one of the first anti-heroines, it is ‘a foulmouthed comic tour de force, still capable of offending the offendable and casting a blue-streaked spell of hilarity over everyone else.’ [Gerald Howard]
There is too much written about Iris Owens and ‘After Claude’ to do either justice in this short note, below are a few short reviews, and extracts from articles.
‘If there’s one thing on this earth that irritates me, it’s when a dumpy, frigid, former nymphomaniac assumes that my tongue is hanging out, thirsting for marital bliss.’
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Price HK$ 8,000
1973 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
Rare in first edition, even more so in dust jacket, and here you have a fine and signed first edition.Cult classic and the first of only two books published under the author’s own name. The rest of her career was spent writing pornography as ‘Harriet Daimler’ for the Olympia Press in Paris.
‘After Claude’ features Harriet one of the first anti-heroines, it is ‘a foulmouthed comic tour de force, still capable of offending the offendable and casting a blue-streaked spell of hilarity over everyone else.’ [Gerald Howard]
There is too much written about Iris Owens and ‘After Claude’ to do either justice in this short note, below are a few short reviews, and extracts from articles.
‘If there’s one thing on this earth that irritates me, it’s when a dumpy, frigid, former nymphomaniac assumes that my tongue is hanging out, thirsting for marital bliss.’
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Price HK$ 8,000
A Morbid Taste for Bones. A Mediaeval Whodunnit -
Ellis Peters (Pseud. Edith Pargeter)
1977 - MacMillan London Limited, London - First Edition
A fine and thus scarce true first edition of the first Brother Cadfael mystery, set in twelfth-century Britain. After leaving his home in Trefriw, Gwynedd, apprenticing with an English wool merchant and participating in the First Crusade and other adventures, Cadfael ap Meilyr ap Dafydd returned to England and joins a Benedictine monastery in Shrewsbury as gardener, herbalist and occasional translator.
Yes, he is Welsh, and yes this is a fine copy, with none of the toning to the spine usually encountered.
‘Cadfael must surely become a cult figure of crime fiction.’ – Financial Times, London.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1977 - MacMillan London Limited, London - First Edition
A fine and thus scarce true first edition of the first Brother Cadfael mystery, set in twelfth-century Britain. After leaving his home in Trefriw, Gwynedd, apprenticing with an English wool merchant and participating in the First Crusade and other adventures, Cadfael ap Meilyr ap Dafydd returned to England and joins a Benedictine monastery in Shrewsbury as gardener, herbalist and occasional translator. Yes, he is Welsh, and yes this is a fine copy, with none of the toning to the spine usually encountered.
‘Cadfael must surely become a cult figure of crime fiction.’ – Financial Times, London.
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Price HK$ 6,000
The Oldest Inhabitant. A Comedy -
Eden Phillpotts
1934 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First American Edition
A fine first edition in fine dust jacket.
A plot based in a small Devonshire village, and centred around one of it’s oldest residents, a sly old scamp and about whom his oldest friend says “a artfully and more utterly devious and downy old man than he is don’t draw breath”...
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Price HK$ 1,800
1934 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First American Edition
A fine first edition in fine dust jacket.A plot based in a small Devonshire village, and centred around one of it’s oldest residents, a sly old scamp and about whom his oldest friend says “a artfully and more utterly devious and downy old man than he is don’t draw breath”...
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Price HK$ 1,800
Johnson Over Jordan - The Play. And All About It (An Essay) -
J. B. Priestley
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi Dench
A smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi DenchA smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
Harry Potter Series, Complete Deluxe Set - 7 volumes -
J. K. Rowling
1999-2007 - Bloomsbury, London - All First Deluxe Editions, First Printing, in Deluxe Bindings
Harry Potter's award-winning wizarding adventures have had an unrivalled impact in popular culture today; indeed, some experts have referred to adults between the ages of roughly 20-30 years old as 'the Harry Potter generation'.
Presented here is a complete and fine and stunning seven volume set of first printings of the deluxe editions, superior to the trade editions, being larger, with quality cloth and gilt lettered covers, the artwork inlaid to the upper panels, silk bookmarks, and all edges finished in gilt.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1999-2007 - Bloomsbury, London - All First Deluxe Editions, First Printing, in Deluxe Bindings
Harry Potter's award-winning wizarding adventures have had an unrivalled impact in popular culture today; indeed, some experts have referred to adults between the ages of roughly 20-30 years old as 'the Harry Potter generation'.Presented here is a complete and fine and stunning seven volume set of first printings of the deluxe editions, superior to the trade editions, being larger, with quality cloth and gilt lettered covers, the artwork inlaid to the upper panels, silk bookmarks, and all edges finished in gilt.
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Price HK$ 35,000
Maus. A Survivor's Tale in RAW Magazine - Signed -
Art Spiegelman
1980-86 - Raw Magazine, New York - First Editions
The true first appearance in print in RAW magazine of Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking and Pulitzer winning ‘Maus. A Survivor's Tale’, the first chapter inserted into issue two is signed and dated by Spiegelman. Housed in two bespoke black cloth clamshell cases with red morocco labels lettered and ruled in gilt.
American cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s graphic retelling of his parents’ experience as Jews in Hitler’s Europe as well as an exploration of his own relationship with his father and his experience as the son of a survivor.
Maus won the cartoonist a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 – the first time the award had been given to a graphic novel, which was initially serialised as a little insert in RAW Magazine as presented here. Spiegelman depicted the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice and was considered “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” by the Wall Street Journal.
Consisting of seven large folio issues of RAW Magazine, 1980-1986, containing the first edition, first appearance of the first seven chapters, in seven issues (volume 1, nos. 2-8) of RAW magazine (Maus is produced as a separate small publication tipped into RAW, as issued (volume 1, no. 1 of RAW is not present as it did not contain Maus).
Together with: Three thick quarto issues of RAW Magazine, 1989-1991, containing chapters eight, nine, and ten of Maus, in three issues (volume 2, nos. 1-3), volume 2 issue 4, which presumably would have the last chapter of Maus, was never published.
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Price HK$ 20,000
1980-86 - Raw Magazine, New York - First Editions
The true first appearance in print in RAW magazine of Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking and Pulitzer winning ‘Maus. A Survivor's Tale’, the first chapter inserted into issue two is signed and dated by Spiegelman. Housed in two bespoke black cloth clamshell cases with red morocco labels lettered and ruled in gilt.American cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s graphic retelling of his parents’ experience as Jews in Hitler’s Europe as well as an exploration of his own relationship with his father and his experience as the son of a survivor.
Maus won the cartoonist a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 – the first time the award had been given to a graphic novel, which was initially serialised as a little insert in RAW Magazine as presented here. Spiegelman depicted the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice and was considered “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” by the Wall Street Journal.
Consisting of seven large folio issues of RAW Magazine, 1980-1986, containing the first edition, first appearance of the first seven chapters, in seven issues (volume 1, nos. 2-8) of RAW magazine (Maus is produced as a separate small publication tipped into RAW, as issued (volume 1, no. 1 of RAW is not present as it did not contain Maus).
Together with: Three thick quarto issues of RAW Magazine, 1989-1991, containing chapters eight, nine, and ten of Maus, in three issues (volume 2, nos. 1-3), volume 2 issue 4, which presumably would have the last chapter of Maus, was never published.
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Price HK$ 20,000
Cannery Row -
John Steinbeck
1945 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First State
Cannery Row's ‘inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing.’
A fine first edition of one of Steinbeck’s wonderful stories set in Monterey, with the Doc being based on his old friend Ed Ricketts. In the scarce first State binding using buff-coloured cloth (there was not enough of this cloth to complete the run, so canary-yellow cloth was selected to bind the remaining majority).
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Price HK$ 10,000
1945 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First State
Cannery Row's ‘inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing.’A fine first edition of one of Steinbeck’s wonderful stories set in Monterey, with the Doc being based on his old friend Ed Ricketts. In the scarce first State binding using buff-coloured cloth (there was not enough of this cloth to complete the run, so canary-yellow cloth was selected to bind the remaining majority).
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Grapes of Wrath -
John Steinbeck
1939 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
‘They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency.’
A sharp bright and unrestored first edition of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Great Depression.
‘You got to have patience. Why, Tom, us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people, we go on.’
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Price HK$ 80,000
1939 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
‘They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency.’ A sharp bright and unrestored first edition of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Great Depression.
‘You got to have patience. Why, Tom, us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people, we go on.’
More details
Price HK$ 80,000